Friday, December 31, 2010

This year, we celebrated Christmas twice. The first time was at my mom and dad's and the second was at our house. We had to celebrate early as our son, Brady and his wife Kylie, were traveling to Seattle to spend the holidays with her family. Our first celebration was on December 17th.

Our younger children have always spent Christmas Eve watching the "Christmas Story" marathon on TBS. This year, Hannah told us about the "leg lamps" that Hastings carried. Perfect gift for Brady, you can tell by the look on Kylie's face that we had fed an obsession.

This is Hannah's best friend and roommate, Amy. We got Amy "Despicable Me", her favorite movie. Notice the hula hoop behind Amy? Kylie makes these for the classes that she teaches at the YMCA. They are weighted to give a maximum impact when you use it to exercise. This year, Amy, Hannah and our grand-daughter, Sophie got them.

Brady loves little ones. The tutu that Lilly has on was made by Kylie. I love handmade gifts. I got 3 wonderful handmade jar lanterns for my front porch. I can't wait to hang them up in the Spring.

Hannah got a hand-drawn Zombie Stormtrooper from Brady. Brady is a Starwars fanatic! Hannah shares the same obsession with Starwars that her big brother does. Hannah is also obsessed with Zombies. She LOVED her gift. Brady is studying to be a tatoo artist. Right now he is apprenticing with a well-known tatoo artist in Boise. He is actually selling his art while he is waiting to complete his apprenticeship. Hannah was so excited!

Kylie and Brady got Jackson a pirate cork gun. He has so much fun with it! He giggled and giggled, while he was shooting all of us with it. Definately his favorite gift!

Here is our daughter-in-law, Becky, with Lilly and Jackson.

Here is my mom with Lilly. My mom LOVES babies! Babies LOVE my mom. Many times since Thanksgiving my mom has been called the baby-hog. She just can't help herself.

Here is my dad with Lilly. Lilly was loving my dad. She was cooing at him and smiling at him. My dad has MS and is a bit shaky and usually refuses to hold babies, but he was so happy to hold her!

I got spoiled for Christmas. Rick said with Christmas and our upcoming wedding, we couldn't buy each other a present. Well, he didn't follow his own rule! I got a Nikon D-60 SLR! I have wanted a digital SLR forever. I love it!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Next up on my catch-up blogging is my Christmas Decorations. First up is my tinsel tree. I have had this one for about 8 years. It stands about 3 1/2 - 4 feet tall.

At one of our local thrift stores 2 days before Christmas, Rick found it's best friend - the color wheel. It was marked $30.00. That close to Christmas, I wasn't sure it was something we could pick up. However, the thrift store was discounting all Christmas Items 50%! So it hopped in my cart and came home with us.

I love the base, it is coated in big sparkly glitter.

Next are some of the decorations in my kitchen.

My vintage Santa mugs and vases

These little snowmen came with Rick when we got married. They have been a part of my Christmas decorating for the last 20 years.

And some of my snowmen with my miniature vintage tinsel tree

My milk glass compote with some vintage ornaments in it.Next are my vintage angel carolers. They are in my bathroom window. They make me smile.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

I was absolutely sure that I would have posted photos of my tree by now. But then Christmas and preparations for my middle daughter's wedding got in the way. Cassie got married the day after Christmas. Now that I am off for the next week, I am going to try to get in a post a day to get caught up with everything I have to share. So I will start with my tree.

So here it is before the decorations. Notice the way it leans to the side and to the back? When you get them in the mountains, they are not always perfect. That is just the way I like them. Lots of open space and lots of challenges-a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Here are the ornaments that I chose this year. Not all of them made it on, but most of them did.This is just a few of what I have. I have tubs and tubs and tubs full of vintage ornaments. Rick and I spend a lot of time at the thrift stores and I just can't leave a vintage ornament behind. This season, I bought 5 boxes alone!

Here it is decorated. This year, I have 2 spinners that also move the ornament up and down. I also have 7 spinners that just spin. It is really fun to sit and watch, especially when it is completely dark outside. Next set of photos are some of my favorites.

I have fallen in love with these! They were made in Japan before WWII. I have two with trees, one with a snowman and one with a bird.

This one was made during WWII. The glass is bubbly is really pretty in the light.

This one was made during WWII also. It has a paper hanger. They came with paper hangers because the army needed all metal for the war effort.

This clip-on cockatiel came from a friend of my moms. She came from Germany as a young bride. She bought this for her first Christmas tree! She gave it to me, along with some pristine 50's Shiney Brights, when she found out that I collected vintage ornaments. I have had them almost 7 years now.

This is my most treasured. It was my great-grandma Stuhlberg's. She brought it from Germany when her family emigrated here in the 1920's. She gave it to my dad when he was a little boy. It was on our Christmas trees as a child. My dad gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Just when Rick had convinced me that we should have an artificial tree this year, our children informed us that we would ruin Christmas for them if we didn't go to our South Hills to get a tree. So, Rick and I, Brady and Kylie, Hannah and her best friend Amy, and Jake, Becky, Jackson and Lilly went to get our trees.

Hannah and Amy with their tree

Jake, Becky, Jackson and Lilly with their tree

Becky and Lilly

Jake and Jackson, Jackson never quit running!

Brady and Kylie

Our family that went tree hunting

View of the scenery on the way up

Deer in a farmers field at the bottom of the mountain, this was one of two herds in the same field

It was an awesome way to spend a Saturday morning. Now I just have to finish getting my ornaments and decorations out of our storage unit! Not sure that will happen today. We are experiencing blowing and drifting snow today. Winds in excess of 40 mph, not sure we're going to get out. Might be drifted in!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

We are in a blizzard warning here in the Magic Valley! We are supposed to have another 6 to 8 inches of snow today, and the winds are blowing at 33 mph with gusts of 41 mph right now! And the blizzard hasn't even got here yet! We are supposed to have winds of up to 60 mph winds. We have huge drifts, the wind is blowing so hard right now, I can't get out to take photos of them.

Here are some photos that I took over the last weekend. The snow started Friday night and we have had snow everyday since then!

This is the view out of my craft room window on Saturday morning. I love the light that was coming through. Makes everything so soft!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Our middle daughter, Cassie, is getting married the day after Christmas.

Her love story is sweet! She is marrying her high school sweetie. Funny thing is that we didn't even know she had a high school sweetheart. Chris moved to Alaska to be with her. Now they are coming home to get married since most of both families live in the same area.

Today I have attempted to add the final draft of both the invite (for people who can come) and announcements (for people too far away to come) to my blog. Shutterfly offers a Blogspot link to post your projects to your blog which is cool. But the link keeps posting to a group blog I belong to that deals with quilting instead of my personal blog. And I tried to link it to my sidebar, but that didn't work either. I am uber-frustrated, but determined!

Here is what the invite cover looks like:

And here is the inside of the invite.

Here is the announcement for friends and family that can't join us. I am ordering them through Shutterfly. The prices are great and I a super excited to get these and get them addressed and sent out. I am getting excited for the wedding!

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

This last weekend, I had the priviledge of attending a baby shower. It was for my daughter-in-law, Becky. It was so much fun to be honoring a new mother with a group of beautiful women!

The shower was put on by Becky's good friend, Keisha. I was very remiss in not getting a photo of the two of them. I was having so much fun!

It was held at Becky's mom and dad's house.

First photo is of Miss Lilly wearing the hat that Keisha made. It is adorable!

Next up is the beautiful table that Keisha set for all of us. We had mini-quiches, asian spring rolls, cupcakes, individual pumpkin cheesecakes and spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Yummy.

Keisha made a tutu for Lilly's first birthday and a hair ribbon hanger for Lilly's bedroom. You can see glimpses of them in the table photo! Keisha is an amazing crafter.

The next photo is of Becky with the afghan that my mom made for Lilly. My mom makes the most amazing baby afghans. Lilly's big brother, Jackson, still naps with his!

Next up is a photo of Lilly's big brother, Jackson, in his cowboy outfit that we bought him. Can't have a 2 1/2 year old at a baby shower without presents!

He got a lot of presents which is always fun. Most of them related to Toy Story 3. Jackson is all about Woody from the Toy Story movies and cowboys right now! He was NOT into having his picture taken right now, so I have to sneek them!

There are no photos of me holding Lilly at the shower. I have been trying to recover from the flu and I am still feeling under the weather. I would hate to think that I could pass something on to such a little one. So I will wait until I feel a lot better, just in case.

I was indeed blessed to have had such a fantastic girls' day out! And I would like to thank Keisha and Becky's mom, Diana, for such a great time!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Thanks to my friend, Diana (my daughter-in-law's mom), I have plenty of pumpkins for Halloween! Diana gave me these decorative pumpkins, at least 9 pie pumpkins and 4 HUGE carving pumpkins. I gave Hannah and her best friend, Amy, two of the carving pumpkins.

Tomorrow I will be carving our 2. I can't decide on a "fancy pattern downloaded off the internet" or the basic "stick a knife in and carve what amounts to a stick figure" image. Because I don't have young kids at home anymore, I am leaning towards the "stick the knife in mode".

Sometime this weekend, I will be cleaning out the pie pumpkins and baking the flesh to store for Thanksgiving pies and I will be roasting the pumpkin seeds.

I love roasted pumpkin seeds! My favorite is the original Martha Stewart one with sea salt and crushed rosemary. However, I have found a curried Indian recipe that looks awesome as well.

Who I Am

I am a wife, a mother of 5, grandmother of 4, we are expecting our 5th grandchild in October 2013. We already know that we are having a granddaughter and her name will be Isabel. I am a mother-in-law to a really awesome young woman. I am a mother-in-law to 2 awesome young men. My two youngest are both happy with the loves of their lives right now. I am the mother of children obsessed with tattoos. Four of my five children have multiple tattoos. I am the mother of children that love fire. All five are fascinated by it. My youngest "firehoops". My two youngest children love and participate in Burning Man.
I have rheumatoid arthritis, and I work at not letting it define who I am. I am an animal lover. We currently have a 3-legged pygmy goat, numerous outside cats, 4 dogs as well as 2 inside cats. I am obsessed with many things: crafting blogs, music, quilting, crocheting, tatting, scrapbooking, taking photos, Facebook, Pinterest, the Green Bay Packers, NASCAR, the Utah Jazz, the New York Yankees, collecting vintage Christmas ornamnets, collecting vintage pyrex dishes, yard sales, thrifting, and riding our new motorcycle!